Bell to offer 4K HDR Fibe TV set-top box

Bell subscribers will get access to “lifelike 4K HDR”

National telecom Bell is set to offer its Fibe TV customers a set-top box capable of transmitting in 4K HDR.

The box is manufactured by U.S.-based telecom equipment manufacturer Arris, and is powered by Ericsson’s MediaFirst platform.

“We are proud to be the launch partner for Bell’s implemention of MediaFirst for Fibe TV, a fast-growing IPTV service with more than 1.5 million customers in Canada,” said Larry Robinson, president of Arris, in a February 13th, 2018 media release. “This deployment further demonstrates that Arris is the leading technology provider when it comes to enabling ground-breaking television services.”

According to the same media release, Bell customers will be access “lifelike 4K HDR” content, and connect to 802.11ac and 4×4 Wi-Fi. Given 4K content isn’t extremely common, it remains unclear exactly how much HDR content Bell intends to make available on its services.

“Fibe TV become Canada’s #1 TV service by offering an outstanding viewing experience that’s both personalized and on-demand,” said Rizwan Jamal, president of Bell residential services and small business, in the same February release. “Together with Arris, we look forward to taking Fibe TV to the next level as we deliver the latest 4K experience to our customers.”

Bell estimates that approximately 1.5 million people in Canada use Fibe TV.